William Alston - Wikipedia William Alston From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search American philosopher For other people named William Alston, see William Alston (disambiguation). William Alston Born (1921-11-29)November 29, 1921 Shreveport, Louisiana, US Died September 13, 2009(2009-09-13) (aged 87) Jamesville, New York, US Nationality American Alma mater University of Chicago Era Contemporary philosophy Region Western philosophy School Analytic philosophy Notable ideas Epistemic justification William Payne Alston (November 29, 1921 – September 13, 2009) was an American philosopher. He made influential contributions to the philosophy of language, epistemology, and Christian philosophy. He earned his PhD from the University of Chicago and taught at the University of Michigan, Rutgers University, University of Illinois, and Syracuse University. Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Death 4 Bibliography 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading Early life and education[edit] Alston was born to Eunice Schoolfield and William Alston on November 29, 1921, in Shreveport, Louisiana. He graduated from high school when he was 15 and went on to Centenary College of Louisiana, graduating in 1942 with a Bachelor of Music in piano. During World War II, he played clarinet and bass drum in a military band in California. During this time, he became interested in philosophy, sparked by W. Somerset Maugham's book The Razor's Edge. After this, he engrossed himself in works by well-known philosophers such as Jacques Maritain, Mortimer J. Adler, Francis Bacon, Plato, René Descartes, and John Locke.[1] After being discharged, he entered a graduate program for philosophy at the University of Chicago, even though he had never formally taken a class on the subject.[2][3] While he was there, he learned more about philosophy from Richard McKeon and Charles Hartshorne, and he received his PhD in 1951.[1] Career[edit] From 1949 until 1971, Alston was a professor at the University of Michigan, and he became professor of philosophy in 1961.[4] He then taught at Rutgers University for five years, followed by the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 1976 to 1980 and then Syracuse University from 1980 to 1992.[1] His views on foundationalism, internalism versus externalism, speech acts, and the epistemic value of mystical experience, among many other topics, have been very influential. Like most contemporary American philosophers, Alston is counted among the analytic philosophers.[5] Together with Alvin Plantinga, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Robert Adams, and Michael L. Peterson, Alston helped to found the journal Faith and Philosophy.[6] With Plantinga, Wolterstorff, and others, Alston was also responsible for the development of "Reformed epistemology" (a term that Alston, an Episcopalian, never fully endorsed), one of the most important contributions to Christian thought in the twentieth century.[7] Alston was president of the Western Division (now the Central Division) of the American Philosophical Association in 1979, the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and the Society of Christian Philosophers, which he co-founded. He was widely recognized as one of the core figures in the late twentieth-century revival of the philosophy of religion.[8][9] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1990.[10] Death[edit] Alston died in a nursing home in Jamesville, New York, on September 13, 2009, at the age of 87.[2] Bibliography[edit] Beyond "Justification": Dimensions of Epistemic Evaluation, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-8014-7332-6 A Sensible Metaphysical Realism (The Aquinas Lecture, 2001), Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Marquette University Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0-8746-2168-6 Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-8014-3669-7 A Realist Conception of Truth, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0-8014-8410-0 Epistemic Justification: Essays in the Theory of Knowledge, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0-8014-9544-1 The Reliability of Sense Perception, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0-8014-8101-7 Perceiving God: The Epistemology of Religious Experience, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1991. ISBN 978-0-8014-8155-0 Divine Nature and Human Language: Essays in Philosophical Theology. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8014-9545-8 Philosophy of Language, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall, 1964 See also[edit] Biography portal Philosophy portal American philosophy List of American philosophers References[edit] ^ a b c Howard-Snyder, Daniel (2005). "Alston, William Payne (1921– )". In Shook, John R. (ed.). Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers (PDF). 1. Continuum. pp. 56–61. ISBN 978-1-84371-037-0. Retrieved December 8, 2013. ^ a b "William Payne Alston Obituary". The Post-Standard. September 20, 2009. Retrieved December 9, 2013. ^ "Emeritus professor of philosophy William Payne Alston dies". Syracuse University. September 18, 2009. Retrieved December 9, 2013. ^ "The Aquinas Lecture in Philosophy i". Marquette University Press. Retrieved December 10, 2013. ^ Oppy, Graham; Trakakis, Nick, eds. (2009). History of Western Philosophy of Religion (PDF). Acumen Publishing, Limited. ISBN 978-1-84465-679-0. Retrieved December 9, 2013. ^ Plantinga, Alvin (2009). "In Memoriam: William J. Alston" (PDF). Faith and Philosophy. 26 (4): 359–360. doi:10.5840/faithphil200926434. ISSN 0739-7046. ^ Meeker, Kevin (April 1994). "William Alston's Epistemology of Religious Experience: A 'Reformed' Reformed Epistemology?". International Journal for Philosophy of Religion. 35 (2): 89–110. doi:10.1007/bf01318327. JSTOR 40036246. S2CID 170253486. ^ "William P. Alston". Centenary College of Louisiana. Archived from the original on December 13, 2013. Retrieved December 10, 2013. ^ "APA Divisional Presidents and Addresses". American Philosophical Association. Retrieved August 11, 2018. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. p. 11. Retrieved December 9, 2013. Further reading[edit] Battaly, Heather D.; Lynch, Michael Patrick (2005). Perspectives on the Philosophy of William P. Alston. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-1424-9. Feneuil, Anthony (2012). "Percevoir Dieu? Henri Bergson et William P. Alston" [Perceiving God? Henri Bergson and William P. Alston]. ThéoRèmes (in French) (2). doi:10.4000/theoremes.310. ISSN 1664-0136. v t e Analytic philosophy Related articles Areas of focus Epistemology Language Mathematics Science Turns Aretaic Linguistic Logic Classical Mathematical Non-classical Philosophical Theories Anti-realism Australian realism Descriptivist theory of names Emotivism Functionalism Analytical feminism Logical atomism Logical positivism Analytical Marxism Neopragmatism Neurophilosophy Ordinary language Quietism Scientific structuralism Sense data Concepts Analysis (paradox of analysis) Analytic–synthetic distinction Counterfactual Natural kind Reflective equilibrium Supervenience Modality Actualism Necessity Possibility Possible world Realism Rigid designator Philosophers Noam Chomsky Keith Donnellan Paul Feyerabend Gottlob Frege Ian Hacking Karl Popper Ernest Sosa Barry Stroud Michael Walzer Cambridge Charlie Broad Norman Malcolm G. E. Moore Graham Priest Bertrand Russell Frank P. Ramsey Ludwig Wittgenstein Oxford G. E. M. Anscombe J. L. Austin A. J. Ayer Michael Dummett Antony Flew Philippa Foot Peter Geach Paul Grice R. M. Hare Alasdair MacIntyre Derek Parfit Gilbert Ryle John Searle P. F. Strawson Richard Swinburne Charles Taylor Bernard Williams Timothy Williamson Logical positivists Ernest Nagel Berlin Circle Carl Gustav Hempel Hans Reichenbach Vienna Circle Rudolf Carnap Kurt Gödel Otto Neurath Moritz Schlick Harvard Roderick Chisholm Donald Davidson Daniel Dennett Nelson Goodman Christine Korsgaard Thomas Kuhn Thomas Nagel Robert Nozick Hilary Putnam W. V. O. Quine John Rawls Pittsburgh School Robert Brandom Patricia Churchland Paul Churchland Adolf Grünbaum John McDowell Ruth Millikan Nicholas Rescher Wilfrid Sellars Bas van Fraassen Princeton Jerry Fodor David Lewis Jaegwon Kim Saul Kripke Richard Rorty Notre Dame Robert Audi Peter van Inwagen Alvin Plantinga Australian David Chalmers J. L. Mackie Peter Singer J. J. C. Smart Quietism James F. Conant Alice Crary Cora Diamond Category Index v t e Epistemology Epistemologists Thomas Aquinas Augustine of Hippo William Alston Robert Audi A. J. Ayer George Berkeley Laurence BonJour Keith DeRose René Descartes John Dewey Fred Dretske Edmund Gettier Alvin Goldman Nelson Goodman Paul Grice Anil Gupta Susan Haack David Hume Immanuel Kant Søren Kierkegaard Peter Klein Saul Kripke Hilary Kornblith David Lewis John Locke G. E. Moore John McDowell Robert Nozick Alvin Plantinga Plato Duncan Pritchard James Pryor Hilary Putnam W. V. O. Quine Thomas Reid Bertrand Russell Gilbert Ryle Wilfrid Sellars Susanna Siegel Ernest Sosa P. F. Strawson Baruch Spinoza Timothy Williamson Ludwig Wittgenstein Nicholas Wolterstorff Vienna Circle more... Theories Coherentism Constructivism Contextualism Empiricism Evolutionary epistemology Fallibilism Feminist epistemology Fideism Foundationalism Holism Infinitism Innatism Naïve realism Naturalized epistemology Phenomenalism Positivism Rationalism Reductionism Reliabilism Representational realism Skepticism Transcendental idealism Concepts A priori knowledge A posteriori knowledge Analysis Analytic–synthetic distinction Belief Common sense Descriptive knowledge Exploratory thought Gettier problem Induction Internalism and externalism Justification Knowledge Objectivity Privileged access Problem of induction Problem of other minds Perception Procedural knowledge Proposition Regress argument Simplicity Speculative reason Truth more... Related articles Outline of epistemology Faith and rationality Formal epistemology Meta-epistemology Philosophy of perception Philosophy of science Social epistemology Category Task Force Stubs Discussion v t e Philosophy of religion Concepts in religion Afterlife Euthyphro dilemma Faith Intelligent design Miracle Problem of evil Religious belief Soul Spirit Theodicy Theological veto Conceptions of God Aristotelian view Brahman Demiurge Divine simplicity Egoism Holy Spirit Misotheism Pandeism Personal god Process theology Supreme Being Unmoved mover God in Abrahamic religions Buddhism Christianity Hinduism Islam Jainism Judaism Mormonism Sikhism Baháʼí Faith Wicca Existence of God For Beauty Christological Consciousness Cosmological Kalam Contingency Degree Desire Experience Fine-tuning of the universe Love Miracles Morality Necessary existent Ontological Pascal's wager Proper basis Reason Teleological Natural law Watchmaker analogy Transcendental Against 747 gambit Atheist's Wager Evil Free will Hell Inconsistent revelations Nonbelief Noncognitivism Occam's razor Omnipotence Poor design Russell's teapot Theology Acosmism Agnosticism Animism Antireligion Atheism Creationism Dharmism Deism Demonology Divine command theory Dualism Esotericism Exclusivism Existentialism Christian Agnostic Atheistic Feminist theology Thealogy Womanist theology Fideism Fundamentalism Gnosticism Henotheism Humanism Religious Secular Christian Inclusivism Theories about religions Monism Monotheism Mysticism Naturalism Metaphysical Religious Humanistic New Age Nondualism Nontheism Pandeism Panentheism Pantheism Perennialism Polytheism Possibilianism Process theology Religious skepticism Spiritualism Shamanism Taoic Theism Transcendentalism more... Religious language Eschatological verification Language game Logical positivism Apophatic theology Verificationism Problem of evil Augustinian theodicy Best of all possible worlds Euthyphro dilemma Inconsistent triad Irenaean theodicy Natural evil Theodicy Philosophers of religion (by date active) Ancient and medieval Anselm of Canterbury Augustine of Hippo Avicenna Averroes Boethius Erasmus Gaunilo of Marmoutiers Pico della Mirandola Heraclitus King James VI and I Marcion of Sinope Thomas Aquinas Maimonides Early modern Augustin Calmet René Descartes Blaise Pascal Baruch Spinoza Nicolas Malebranche Gottfried W Leibniz William Wollaston Thomas Chubb David Hume Baron d'Holbach Immanuel Kant Johann G Herder 1800 1850 Friedrich Schleiermacher Karl C F Krause Georg W F Hegel William Whewell Ludwig Feuerbach Søren Kierkegaard Karl Marx Albrecht Ritschl Afrikan Spir 1880 1900 Ernst Haeckel W K Clifford Friedrich Nietzsche Harald Høffding William James Vladimir Solovyov Ernst Troeltsch Rudolf Otto Lev Shestov Sergei Bulgakov Pavel Florensky Ernst Cassirer Joseph Maréchal 1920 postwar George Santayana Bertrand Russell Martin Buber René Guénon Paul Tillich Karl Barth Emil Brunner Rudolf Bultmann Gabriel Marcel Reinhold Niebuhr Charles Hartshorne Mircea Eliade Frithjof Schuon J L Mackie Walter Kaufmann Martin Lings Peter Geach George I Mavrodes William Alston Antony Flew 1970 1990 2010 William L Rowe Dewi Z Phillips Alvin Plantinga Anthony Kenny Nicholas Wolterstorff Richard Swinburne Robert Merrihew Adams Ravi Zacharias Peter van Inwagen Daniel Dennett Loyal Rue Jean-Luc Marion William Lane Craig Ali Akbar Rashad Alexander Pruss Related topics Criticism of religion Desacralization of knowledge Ethics in religion Exegesis History of religion Religion Religious language Religious philosophy Relationship between religion and science Faith and rationality more... Portal Category Authority control BIBSYS: 90592629 BNF: cb12251756m (data) GND: 123664977 ISNI: 0000 0001 1026 1325 LCCN: n79043332 LNB: 000083691 NKC: uk2005277820 NLA: 49885829 NLI: 000418927 NLK: KAC199600484 NLP: A29260681 NSK: 000344713 NTA: 068273819 PLWABN: 9810690451705606 RERO: 02-A002921547 SNAC: w67j6c0b SUDOC: 031269931 Trove: 1504841 VIAF: 46817536 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n79043332 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Alston&oldid=997211252" Categories: 1921 births 2009 deaths 20th-century American philosophers 21st-century American philosophers American metaphysics writers Analytic philosophers Anglican philosophers Epistemologists Epistemology of religion Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Metaphysicians People from DeWitt, New York Philosophers from Louisiana Philosophers from New York (state) Philosophers of language Philosophers of religion Presidents of the Society of Christian Philosophers Rutgers University faculty Syracuse University faculty University of Chicago alumni University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign faculty University of Michigan faculty Writers from Shreveport, Louisiana 20th-century American Episcopalians Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Articles with hCards Pages using infobox philosopher with unknown parameters CS1 French-language sources (fr) Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with LNB identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLI identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLK identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLP identifiers Wikipedia articles with NSK identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with RERO identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version Languages العربية Azərbaycanca Català Deutsch Eesti Español فارسی Français 한국어 Italiano Português Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Edit links This page was last edited on 30 December 2020, at 13:56 (UTC). 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